A week ago today, I was sitting on my couch with my family, sleepy with contentment, when my brother texted, inviting me to Alaska.

Alaska.

By week’s end, I was climbing a mountain with him, overlooking a glacier at Portage Pass.

Surely you know how laughably impossible this is, and yet, here I am.

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My world is small. I write about dinner and flowers and children and a husband who spoils me with the tenderest care. We’ve taken lavish vacations, but this…this is an adventure I didn’t know my soul needed.

Maybe your soul needs it too.

The moment Mo hit send on the invitation, God began aligning the details for me like stars in the dippers.

Every hurdle was leveled with a wave of His Hand: Heath graciously encouraged me to go. How many husbands would do that? My flights all fell into place and landed me in a window seat every stretch of the way. The cost at checkout? $0.00 because of Visa points. Childcare? Mama moved right in. She’s even watering my flowers for me.

My brother picked me up at Anchorage airport on Saturday, zipping me away in a rental car like thieves stealing joy. He’s here on business, so I even have a fancy place to stay.

We have no schedule and no time limit, because the Lord has done for me what He did for Joshua in the Bible: He stopped time. The sun does not set here this time of year. Even at midnight, people are hiking and playing and shopping, delirious with too little sleep, because humans won’t sleep unless the Lord turns out the light. We’re children that way. 

It’s nearly 70 degrees, same temperature it is in Heaven, probably.

I’m telling you this for this reason: God knows what You need, and He will make it happen without your planning it. Everything is possible.

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On a hiking trail, Mo looked down at my shoes and commented that they were new. They’re not new. They’re old shoes, with a dozen washings. I wear them nearly every day.

How does a person wear a pair of shoes every day and leave them looking new? By not living bravely, that’s how. 

My husband is an adventurer, but I’ve held him back. I’ve floated in a bubble, waving my wand, satisfied over the clean laundry and pat details of our life, when there’s a whole world waiting to tell me God’s Story.

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As I write this, it’s still Monday in Alaska. Everyone back home is asleep and I’m about to board a red-eye across the country.

But four years ago today, I was telling the story of the five stones to a surgeon named David while having my chemo port removed. It was my 40^th birthday, and felt like a valley moment.

On this birthday, Alaska has redefined valley as an invitation to climb higher, braver, to where the water originates and the views render us speechless with wonder.

I’m still small time. I hiked only a couple miles up, but I followed my brother one step at a time, even when my couch muscles begged me to stop.

When I needed to take a break, I looked up the trail at Mo, the sun waiting behind him, and I joked, “Remember that one time we climbed a mountain in Alaska?”

And he smiled back, “I remember when you got to the top, turned and said Wow….”

And that’s just what I did.

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You will make known to me the way of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

~ Psalm 16:11